Mary Ward was an amazing woman whose vision for an active religious community of women was realized in the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary–the BVM sisters.  She modeled the BVMs on the Jesuits.   I was one of the horde of boomer Catholic children whom they taught in the Midwest in the post-war years.

Tim Muldoon wrote about Mary Ward a few years ago.  Lisa Kelly has an appreciation  here.

All of us at Loyola Press are saddened by the death of Miguel Arias. Miguel served as Consultant for Hispanic Ministry from 2003 until 2011, when he moved to a new position at Liturgical Training Publications. An editor, popular speaker, and catechist, Miguel will be remembered for his humor and enthusiasm. He leaves behind his wife, Alma, and daughter, Betsaida.

Rest in peace, Miguel.

The Vatican office for the Causes of Saints has opened an official examination of the life of Walter Ciszek, SJ, to see if he should be canonized one day.

Fr. Ciszek, an American Jesuit, spent 23 years as a prisoner in the Soviet Union, including 15 years of hard labor in Siberia.  He secretly ministered to fellow prisoners during his captivity.  After he returned to the United States in 1963 he wrote two fine books, With God in Russia and He Leadeth Me. 

Fr. Jim Martin describes how Ciszek came to understand what “God’s will” meant in a Soviet prison camp:

[God's] will for us was the 24 hours of each day: the people, the places, the circumstances he set before us in that time. Those were the things God knew were important to him and to us at that moment, and those were the things upon which he wanted us to act, not out of any abstract principle or out of any subjective desire to “do the will of God.” No, these things, the 24 hours of this day, were his will; we had to learn to recognize his will in the reality of the situation.

Sunday is the anniversary of the death of Pedro Arrupe, SJ, superior general of the Jesuits from 1965-83.  He was a charismatic man who led the Jesuits through a difficult time of transition.  After he suffered a debilitating stroke he wrote this wonderful prayer:

More than ever I find myself in the hands of God. This is what I have wanted all my life from my youth. But now there is a difference; the initiative is entirely with God. It is indeed a profound spiritual experience to know and feel myself so totally in God’s hands.

You can read about Arrupe here.  This video is the first in a series produced by Georgetown University.  The first couple of minutes show his very poignant farewell in 1983. (Click here to watch it on YouTube.)

An exhibition of paintings by James Hasse, SJ opened last weekend at the St. Louis University Museum of Art. Fr. Hasse’s work reflects biblical themes and the African-American experience. Some of his work can be viewed in a slideshow from the exhibition and also online here at the University of Dayton.

Fr. Hasse says, “I believe that we are all God’s Work of Art, the Body of Christ, living Gospel, walking, singing, dancing Sacraments. My paintings are an attempt to give visual expression to these realities. Scripture furnishes my subject matter; the people furnish the soul and beauty, I furnish the craftsmanship.”

The exhibition will also feature paintings by Judge Nathan B. Young, the first African-American municipal judge in St. Louis.  It runs through March 4.

Larry Gillick, SJ is a special Jesuit.  Blind since childhood, he has been a Jesuit for 50 years and has had a varied and fruitful career.  Among other accomplishments, he is one of the authors of Retreat in the Real World, a popular adaptation of the Spiritual Exercises.  He does retreat work all over the US, and lives in the Jesuit community at Creighton University.

In this video, he talks about how God called him to be a priest.  (Click here to watch it on YouTube.)

Our newest blogger here at dotMagis is Becky Eldredge, a writer, speaker, and spiritual director in training who lives in Athens, GA, with her husband and two children.  Becky has been active in ministry for 14 years, primarily in retreat work and adult faith formation.  She is currently the coordinator of the Partner Program at Charis Ministries, which gives retreats for young adults in 26 cities.

Becky is working on her certificate in spiritual direction at Spring Hill College.  In her free moments she writes the blog Everything Is Holy Now.  We’ve been working for a while to get Becky to join us.  She’s finally here. She will start blogging tomorrow.

A couple of Jesuit editors have noted that the death of Steve Jobs elicited emotion akin to the to the feelings religious believers have for saints.  Jim Martin, SJ, author of My Life with the Saints, draws seven parallels between Jobs’ life and those of saints.  One of them:

He was the object of a cult. By this I don’t mean the common definition of a “cult” (a group of crazies surrounding an even crazier leader).  Rather, the “cult” that surrounds the saint (and that is the term used) is simply a group of admirers who follow carefully the saint’s teachings, study his or life and meditate on his or her writings.

Antonio Spadaro, SJ, editor of of the Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica, compared Jobs to St. Ignatius:

In his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius wrote that one way of making an important choice is to examine how one would go about making that decision if he knew he were about to die.  Jobs told the new graduates in 2005: “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”

Fr. Martin and Fr. Spadaro were both careful to note that they did not claim that Steve Jobs was actually a saint.

Image by aaipodpics under Creative Commons license.

In America, Timothy O’Brien, SJ, writes about the poet and memoirist Mary Karr about the Spiritual Exercises and Ignatian spirituality: “If you live in New York City, where it’s 105 degrees, I have to walk out of this apartment wondering where I’m going to be of service.”

I’ve written about Mary Karr before. Her memoir Lit is a great story of recovery and spiritual awakening.  Her poetry is searing in its intensity.  Here are a few lines from her poem “Disgraceland:”

Eventually, I lurched out
to kiss the wrong mouths, get stewed,

and sulk around. Christ always stood
to one side with a glass of water.

Read the rest of the poem here.

Daniel Berrigan, SJ, celebrated his 90th birthday yesterday.  We older folk remember him as a charismatic anti-war activist in the 60s and 70s.  He was a powerful advocate for non-violence and social justice for many years.

He is also a poet of some renown.  Here is one of his lyrics.

Miracles

Were I God almighty, I would ordain, rain fall lightly where old men trod, no death in childbirth, neither infant nor mother, ditches firm fenced against the errant blind, aircraft come to ground like any feather.

No mischance, malice, knives.
Tears dried. Would resolve all
flaw and blockage of mind
that makes us mad, sets lives awry.

So I pray, under
the sign of the world’s murder, the ruined son;
why are you silent?
feverish as lions
hear us in the world,
caged, devoid of hope.

Still, some redress and healing.
The hand of an old woman
turns gospel page;
it flares up gently, the sudden tears of Christ.